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How To Run Top Home Based Businesses Outside The Home

By Annette on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 | View Comments

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Top home based businesses now are not restricted to actually being in the home thanks to new technology. By purchasing some of the newer devices that are available on the market, owners can now take their business with them where ever they go, thus giving them greater freedom whilst not losing precious productivity time.

No matter what event is happening you do not have to feel left out, nor do you have to miss out on special family or friends events. You can take that long wished for holiday too. If you get invited out for lunch or out for a cup of coffee you can happily accept. You don’t have to feel restricted and isolated nor do you have to worry about missing that important call or email or losing valuable productivity time that you will need to try to catch up on by, say, getting less sleep.

Remember that you are your own boss and this is why you have your own home business, otherwise you are going to be back in those bad old days when you were working for a boss.
There are various devices that are great business tools which will also allow you to take advantage of various times such as being in waiting rooms, traveling in public transport, waiting for the children while they are doing their various activities, visiting the elderly in nursing homes, all of which are important and have to be done but they have a huge impact on your productivity thus creating more pressure and stress.

These devices range from mobile phones which have all sorts of applications on them including internet access, cameras, emails , contacts, calendars and GPS right through to smaller laptop type devices that have the same as the phones but give you a bigger screen and keyboard to work with plus many great productivity (and play) applications and are, in fact, just a mini laptop devices. If you find that you want to be more productive but find that taking the laptop is too restrictive in size and weight, plus your data is far too valuable to be taking everywhere with you day in and day out then this might be the ideal solution for you.

So to find your perfect solution, the first thing you should do is to work out a list of the tasks that are important for you to be able to operate your business away from your home office such as phone calls, emails, working on various documents, internet browsing, your schedule and contacts. Then, work out how much storage space on these you will need and always allow for extra growth, in other words, look to the future and not the present as you do not want to pay for something now only to find out in a short space of time that it cannot cope and then you will have to outlay more money to either upgrade it or get a totally new device.

Next list the equipment you are currently using by writing down their brand names, the operating system, the software and other hardware. This information is important to because you want to ensure that you choose a device that will communicate with your current equipment plus you will want to be able to do this as easily as possible. For example if you want to do word processing ensure that the documents you create can be transferred easily between the mobile device and your main equipment.

By doing the above couple of steps you may discover that you may not even need to pay for complete devices as your current laptop will do everything for you and that all you need to get is a mobile internet connection. These are readily available plus there are internet cafes and WiFi hotspots appearing everywhere.

Now that you are armed with your information, you can then visit various electronic stores or go online and compare devices, plans and prices and getting them as your budget allows. Several devices can do the same thing but in a different way, so to save money look at those which will handle several of the tasks you need.

You now will have a short list of devices that you wish to purchase, so the next step is to list them in the order that you would like to or able to purchase them, and do not forget to check with your financial advisor as you may be able to claim them as business expenses.
The final task is to get your devices, get mobile and have a wonderfully productive freedom-filled life!

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

How Top Home Based Businesses Keep Their Skills Updated

By Annette on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 | View Comments

Top home based businesses have a Personal Development Plan to set various goals in a variety of areas, including their skills, with measures in place to test and assess that these goals have been achieved and that change has taken place. This is done so that they ensure that they continue to grow both professionally and personally to enable them to earn extra money at home.

Personal development is a wide ranging subject. It involves not only developing oneself but developing others as well and it is a continual process by setting goals, making plans or doing actions to achieve various aims. These aims include improving self-awareness and self-knowledge, developing various strengths or talents, improving quality of life and the fulfilling of aspirations.

It is extremely important for home business owners to have a personal development plan because personal training makes you expect to succeed, it allows you take risks and set challenging goals, it helps you keep trying if at first you don’t succeed. It also helps you control your emotions and fears when the going gets rough all by developing competence by showing you how to manage your emotions, how to find a great work-life balance, how to have good time management plus it teaches you in many other areas.

A good personal development plan has a framework where various development methods, tools, techniques, learning and assesment systems are laid out in such a way that you can see if changes and results are actually occurring. This is done by setting out goals and benchmarks, including having various milestones, levels and stages for testing that the particular goal has been achieved or not. Setting milestones along the way ensures that you can gradually improve, feel and see the difference and thus are encouraged to continue on rather than being discouraged because you cannot see any results causing you to give up altogether.

There are various areas that should be included in top home based businesses personal development plans and these include:- defining priorities, values and ethics; the strategizing and prioritizing of dreams, aspirations both in your career and your personal lifestyle such as health, wealth, family, friends, community and culture; developing and learning skills and talents as well as those you have a particular weakness in or difficulty or fear of; professional potential and individual competencies; learning on the job; stress management; a good health and fitness program; managing money; if you have a group of people working with you then include team management and also and most importantly including becoming the person you aspire to be.

There are many tools and resources available for personal development readily available such as professional courses but if you don’t or can’t pay too much, then look to the Internet for various learning programs that you can do. Of course there are lots of books available covering a huge multitude of topics. Then there are motivational speakers, some of whom also have their own websites with a lot of material available and a lot of this material is free.

This material can also be downloaded onto an MP3 player. You can get individual counseling by a life coach or attend workshops. So no matter what is the area or areas you want to learn or improve in, or how much money you can spend, there is plenty of help and resources available.

Personal development should be done every day and there are always ways to fit it in to a busy and hectic life. For example you could listen to your MP3 player whilst walking, driving, shopping, bathing the kids, vacuuming, playing sports or washing the dishes. I am sure you can think of many other ways that not even I am aware of!

Whatever method or methods you choose, ensure that you do set some time aside each and every day to do something toward your own personal development and then watch yourself and your top home based businesses grow!

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

Top Home Based Businesses Article Writing

By Annette on Friday, August 6th, 2010 | View Comments

Many top home based businesses use article marketing as a way to get customers for their products and services, and if they have a website or blog, it is a great method to get customers to go there. Of course, there are other people who just like to write for the pleasure of it to share their knowledge and expertise with others.

Articles can be written in many different formats such as How To’s, Lists, Pros and Cons, Answering a Question, and Survey Results to name just a few. No matter what format you use, all have rules that the publishers require, however some of these rules vary between publishers, for example the length of the article, so go to their sites and find out what they are and adhere to them otherwise all of your hard work, time and effort could be wasted because you may have to either rewrite or modify your article, or worst of all, have it completely rejected and not published.

To get started write down a list of topics or subjects which all relate to your home business.

Create a template on your computer’s word processing program for the various sections of the article which gives you a framework to work with so that you will not forget a required section. It also will help to speed up the publishing process as you will not have to try to remember or repeatedly retype what you had already worked out for your article.

When writing the title, remember that this is the first item that is read so make it catchy and to the point. The article itself must then be on what the title says as you don’t want to mislead your readers. For example if you called an article How To Milk A Cow and you actually wrote on Training A Dog, your readers would not be happy and from then on would not trust any articles from you. The same would apply if you said you were giving 10 tips and only gave 8.

Write an outline by writing down the various topics of the article in the order in which you want to raise them, reworking them as you go so that you will have a clearer overview of the article and see that it is flowing as you would like.

It is important to keep your reader in mind as you are writing for a specific group of people. If the article is relates to say a medical issue and you are writing it for medical professionals then you would use medical terminology. However, if you were writing it for the general public you would leave this terminology out and simplify the article so that they could understand it.

Allow yourself plenty of time to write your articles and get yourself in a great frame of mind to do so. Do not try to write when you are tired or have a lot of other things to do. You need to be in a clear and refeshed state of mind otherwise you will not be able to write anything.

If you do get stuck just imagine that you are chatting to a friend or potential customer who has asked for your advice regarding that topic you are writing about. This will enable you to write more naturally. Or take a break. Taking regular breaks allows you to refresh and rest your mind. By struggling on you will only get frustrated, it is better to come back again later as you will actually write more efficiently.

To avoid or reduce potential pressure or stress in getting articles written and published, use your template to layout the outlines for other articles, so that if you do get stuck on one and have that dreaded writer’s block, you can just move onto another.

It is extremely important to proof read your article and this should be done several times. Firstly as you are writing the article, stop periodically and read what you have written, check the grammar, spelling, punctuation, the dreaded typos, that it has a good flow, sounds right and that it meets with the publisher’s rules.

Read it again as soon as you have finished, leave it for a few hours or days and then look at it again. Finally check it just before you submit it for publishing.

Now that you are happy with your article you can submit it for publishing to promote your own top home based businesses.

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

Top Home Based Businesses Use The Internet As A Marketing Tool

By Annette on Friday, August 6th, 2010 | View Comments

All top home based businesses need to promote and sell their products or services to as many potential customers in as a costly and timely efficient manner as possible and the Internet has many great ways to do this, but there are positive as well as negative aspects in doing so that you should be aware of before embarking on this marketing method.

Internet Marketing, also known as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing or e-marketing involves the promoting and selling of products and services using a variety of tools available on the Internet which are relatively inexpensive, however, it is also important to watch out for hidden costs.

There are many great things about using the Internet. The Internet is a huge potential customer base of people who are already searching for a particular product or service, thus you can then target your marketing specifically to these people. However, there are a great many processes involved which require a lot of your time and effort in learning and setting them up so if you will want to go into this very slowly and carefully. There are professionals who are very experienced in doing all this who can guide and teach you but they do charge a great deal of money but this can be well worth the money. Many of these advertise on the web but be careful not to sign up too quickly as there are the good as well as the bad.

If you are needing customers straight away to earn money quick, I would suggest that you start your marketing using other methods such as buying leads or distributing fliers because it will be some time before you see results from Internet Marketing. However, in the meantime you can start on learning and setting everything up. Eventually when you do get going you will be delighted with the sales results and the savings you will be getting.

A variety of methods are used to get the message to people and these include emails, websites, blog sites, videos, article writing, banner ads, ads on Google and the social media (Facebook, Twitter). All of these methods have rules and regulations that you must follow, the main ones being not spamming and not blatantly selling your product or service. To advertise using these methods you must be very subtle otherwise your accounts will be closed and you will be turning customers away, which is the exact opposite of what you are trying to do.

Websites and blogs are in a world of their own. There are many steps and costs involved so if you are fairly computer illiterate then I suggest you get specialists to do this for you. However if you are like me and have some knowledge and have the time and also need to save as much money as possible and want to the fun and satisfaction of doing it yourself then go right ahead. There are places and people a round who can give you some guidance. But beware as there are many hidden costs that crop up alongbthe way that no one tells you about until you get to that next step.

Some methods work and link in together, for example if you have a website you need to drive customers, referred to as traffic, to your website. This is done by using methods such as article writing, creating videos and building up a network of people on the social media to name a few. You can use these on their own too, but all methods do have those rules and regulations to follow that I mentioned earlier and I cannot press that point hard enough to you! Yes, you need to sell your product or service but remember that your customers are people and friends first. Treat them how you like to be treated by salespeople. Who are you more likely to buy from – someone who treats you as a friend with respect and dignity or someone who contacts you while you are relaxing at home with your family and pushes you hard to buy their product?

One major advantage I have found is that I have met several great people from all around the world doing Internet Marketing and it is just so much fun. All the hard work is worth it!

I can really recommend this method of marketing your top home based businesses.

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

Top Home Based Businesses Organisational Tips

By Annette on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | View Comments

Owners of successful top home based businesses know the importance of being organized and structured so that they can manage their resources efficiently for greater productivity and profitability. Some of these areas are their time, paperwork, office stationery, equipment, computer files and working area. They also know the importance of being organized with the family and household duties as it benefits their home business, their family as well as their health and sanity! There are a variety of methods and tools readily available that can assist you to get organized too.

Time is the most valuable resource that you have so you should set out a timetable or schedule so that you can maximize the amount of work you do whilst using the least amount of time as possible. A timetable and schedule enables you to be dedicated to get everything done in a timely manner and thus you will be on top of your tasks and you will not feel as if you are overwhelmed by it all and want to give it all away!

Start by putting in all your regular commitments, your no-work times such as important family events and ensure that you put in your rest times as you need some time for yourself to unwind and be rested and refreshed too. Then put in all of the household tasks in their relevant timeslots for example the garbage is collected on Friday so on Thursday the refrigerator is cleared out whilst getting the evening meal. Now you will be able to put in your home business tasks by the time needed, deadline and importance. If you don’t know how long a particular task takes so that you can allocate a timeslot for it time yourself whilst doing it. Also look at tasks that can be done together, for example do the computer backup and virus scan whilst getting the evening meal or playing with the children. Plan tasks too so that they can flow into others, for example Tuesday is shopping day so on Monday get the fliers done so that you can put them on the noticeboards whilst you are at the shops. Also life always likes to give us unexpected events to keep us on our toes so ensure that your schedule is flexible enough so that you can cope and be able to handle these situations much better when they occur. Constantly review, update and modify your schedule as lives are never stable and consistent.

To organize all of your bits and pieces and stationery items you can put all similar items together using various containers. There are many readily available in different sizes and colors. Of course, if funds are tight then you could you reuse containers, jars, tins and boxes that come your way, or get them from any shop that sells such items cheaply or go to garage sales. If you are crafty then you can redecorate them. Then label them by using a label maker or get the children busy with their creative skills to create some unique ones for you by using paper or cardboard which can then be cut to size and applied using glue or Sellotape. Once these are done you can then place these in a variety of places and ways, for example in a cupboard or on shelves depending upon what furniture and space you have.

For your paperwork you can use a variety of methods to file and organize these so that you can access all of your information readily. There are, of course, filing cabinets which is one of the best but if this is not suitable for you then get some lever arch type files or cardboard archive boxes. For the information that you need to refer to often, you can use plastic display folders.

The files on your computer also should be organized so that you can find what you need easily and quickly. Spend a little time thinking and planning this out, but don’t try to get it to work perfectly straight away as you can modify the structure as you go!

Don’t think of this as another huge task to be done, just do it gradually, make it fun and get the whole family involved too!

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

Self Employment Jobs – What Is Involved (Part 2)

By Annette on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 | View Comments

This article is following on from my previous article – “Self Employment Jobs – What Is Involved (Part 1)” in which I covered many items that must be considered in self employment jobs.

In this article I am now going to continue giving you a few hints as to what is involved in getting all self employment jobs up and running.

You should investigate as to whether you will require some training – do you have the skills to do the task required or do you need to be taught how to do certain things? Check out the organisations/associations involved in your chosen field or speak to others doing the same as you. Some courses do incur costs as well.

The next item you should consider is marketing. If you have a business then you need to tell potential customers that you are there and are ready for them. There are many methods of marketing – fliers, letterbox drops, advertising – radio, television, you tube videos; word of mouth and the internet are just some methods. All these vary in costs from free to expensive so you have to include this into your budgeting and you need to set up a plan and work out which one will best suit you. You can write the copy yourself if you feel confident to do so or you can pay to get someone to do it for you. Again, research the various methods and work out which is the best for your current budget. As you business increases you can then proceed to the more expensive options.

If you choose a self employment job that needs items to be sold then these can be done in a variety of ways – over the internet using pre-existing websites or even setting up your own, car boot sales, garage sales and advertisements in local papers are just some of the many ways to do this.

Self employed jobs are wonderful but you have to treat them like a real business, which they are! Therefore you should setup a good space for working in with good lighting, plenty of space and shelving to enable you to be organised. Setup a schedule/diary and stick to it as much as you can. When working out the schedule diary ensure that you work it around your family as they are your first priority – the business should come second.

Have fun exploring all the options out there – self employed jobs abound in the world – there is just the right one waiting for you and your family!
Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.

Self Employment Jobs – What Is Involved (Part 1)

By Annette on Monday, May 17th, 2010 | View Comments

This article is following on from my previous article – “How to Earn Extra Money from Home” in which I talked about the many ways in which extra money can be made from home.

In this article I am now going to give you a few hints as to what is involved in getting all self employment jobs up and running.

Firstly, do some research into your chosen field.  This may be done by searching the internet, reading classified ads, newspapers, magazines or even talking to other people to see if there is an interest in it and to see what your potential “competitors” are doing to get an idea on what and how they are doing it.  This is an important step because you do not want to invest your very valuable time and money only to find out later that there is too much competition, it is too expensive to do or not enough potential customers for your product or service.  There are plenty of self employment jobs available so that if all this is working against your first choice, then do not get disheartened – just select another!

The next item to be looked into is the costing – what costs are involved?  There are many costs and these will depend upon your self employment job.  Some examples are licensing fees, new computer and related hardware and software, telephone bills, power, gas, sewing machine, joining fees, marketing costs, packaging, tools and equipment to do your chosen job, printing and stationery.  And, of course, there are possible accountancy and legal fees to be paid.  All of this should be weighed up against the possible income you will be earning – if your expenses are going to be greater than your income then you may need to change your chosen field or look at reducing the costs, where possible.

Another item to be considered is – what are the rules and regulations you must observe to do this job?  Do you need to have a license?  What are the council or local government regulations as to doing a business from home?    This is where you may need to talk to your accountant (taxation advisor) and/or lawyer to get their professional advice.  They can also advise you as to if this extra income will have an impact upon other areas of your financial situations.

There are many other items to be considered in setting up your own self employment job and I will cover those in my next article.  But, please do not let all these things that must be considered discourage you – they are detailed but they are important and if done correctly then you will have a successful home business and a wonderful life!

Thank you for reading this article. Don’t forget to apply for your Free copy of the 7 Day Boot Camp series on Home-Based Businesses by filling in the form on this page.